FAQ

No, SGI uses Steam’s official API and interacts with Steam just like normal gaming activity. Our Steam idling technology is completely safe and compliant.

Yes. For some features to function correctly SGI requires your Steam profile and game details to be set to public in your privacy settings 

SGI combines multiple Steam idling features into one modern application. Unlike other Steam idlers, it offers card farming, achievement management, and playtime boosting in a single, user-friendly interface.

SGI needs to handle multiple inbound/outbound HTTP requests to fetch data from Steam. For SGI to function correctly you will need to accept this prompt

If you declined the prompt already, you will need to add SGI as an allowed app in Windows Defender Firewall:

1. Open the Windows Control Panel
2. Go to System and Security > Windows Defender Firewall
3. Click on “Allow an app or feature through Windows Defender Firewall”
4. Click “Change settings” then “Add another app…” and then “Browse”
5. Navigate to the install directory of the app you want to add, select it, and click “Open”
6. Check the boxes for “Private” and/or “Public” networks as needed
7. Click “OK” to save the changes

Most features of SGI require the Steam client to be running, and you must be signed in to the same account you are currently logged in to SGI with

• The Steam client needs to be installed
• You need to be signed in to at least one Steam account in the Steam client
• SGI failed to find the install directory for Steam. Try reinstalling Steam in its default location C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam

SGI will automatically search for the Steam install directory by referencing Windows registry keys. Make sure the registry keys are correct by following these steps:

1. Press WinKey + S to open the search bar
2. Type Registry Editor and press Enter to open the Registry Editor
3. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Valve\Steam and make sure the value of SteamPath is set to the correct path of your Steam installation
4. If the value is not set to the correct path of your Steam installation, you can manually set it by right-clicking on SteamPath, selecting Modify, and entering the correct path (e.g., C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam)
5. Close the Registry Editor and restart SGI

Your card farming list is empty. You either need to add games to the list by following these steps, or enable the all games setting in Settings > Card Farming

Your achievement unlocker list is empty. You can add games to your list by following these steps

You are logged in to the Steam client with a different account than you are using in SGI. Most features in SGI require you to be logged in to the same account in both the Steam client and SGI

• You have entered the incorrect cookies. Follow the steps found in the Steam Credentials section
• Steam accounts with Family View  (parental restrictions) enabled will also have a steamParental cookie that needs to be saved in SGI’s settings
• In some cases, Steam accounts might have a steamMachineAuth cookie that needs to be saved in SGI’s settings

SGI requires your Steam community credentials for the account that you plan to farm cards on to see if games in your library have card drops remaining or not. Read the Steam Credentials section for more information

From time to time the cookies you supply to SGI will expire for several reasons and they will need to be updated. Follow the Steam Credentials steps to get the updated cookies

This is covered in great detail in Steam’s Trading Cards FAQ . Our Steam trading card idler automates the process of collecting these cards through Steam idle functionality.

• You can only receive a limited amount of card drops per game, check “How do I know if my games have card drops remaining?” below for more information
• New accounts, accounts with recently refunded games, or accounts with other restrictions  might experience a delay of up to 3 hours before receiving their first card drop, or even no card drops at all
• You must be connected to the internet and signed in to the Steam client
• Free-to-play (F2P) games typically require in-game purchases to drop cards
• You need to own the game on your account. It can’t be a family-shared game
• Games must not be marked as private 
• Paid games earned from promotions typically won’t drop cards

1. Go to your Steam profile
2. Click on Badges
3. Scroll down, or press CTRL+F to search for the game’s title
4. In the top-right of the game card, you will see either X card drops remaining or no card drops remaining

Card drop timers can be different for every game. The developer sets them and they can vary from 15 minutes to 1 hour

No. SGI cannot idle in-game items as it doesn’t run an instance of the game. A feature like this could also be seen as exploiting in most game’s ToS

You can idle a max of 32 games simultaneously with our Steam idling technology. This is the same limit used when farming cards

While most achievements for most games can be unlocked with SGI, some can’t be. Some games contain protected achievements and statistics that can only be modified by official game servers. Learn more 

• The game you are trying to view achievements for does not have any achievements
• Your ‘Game Details’ are set to private in your Steam profile settings

Yes, achievements unlocked with SGI will count toward your completion percentage on sites like Steam, TrueSteamAchievements, SteamHunters, and others that track Steam achievements.

No, you can only unlock achievements for games that are owned by your Steam account. The game must be in your library.

Currently, SGI unlocks achievements randomly within your configured time range. There’s no built-in way to specify a custom order, but you can manually unlock specific achievements using the Achievement Manager.

SGI is lightweight and uses minimal system resources. The main application typically uses less than 100MB of RAM. When idling games, external SteamUtility processes are created, each using around 10-20MB of RAM and minimal CPU.

Yes, you can run multiple instances of SGI to manage different Steam accounts or to unlock achievements for multiple games simultaneously. Each instance must be configured for a different Steam account.

SGI works with your own games, but has limitations with family-shared games. You cannot idle or manage achievements for games that are shared with you from another account. You can only manage games you own directly.

SteamUtility.exe processes are created to communicate with Steam and simulate game activity. These are external helper processes that are automatically managed by SGI - they start when needed and close when games stop being idled.

1. Check the logs in %appdata%/roaming/com.zevnda.steam-game-idler for error messages
2. Restart SGI and Steam
3. Make sure you’re running the latest version of SGI
4. If the issue persists, report it on the GitHub issues page with your log files

1. Try restarting SGI
2. Clear your browser cache if using a web version
3. Check if you’re running any screen scaling that might affect the UI
4. Try switching themes in Settings > General

1. Make sure Steam is installed and running
2. Run SGI as administrator
3. Check Windows Defender or antivirus isn’t blocking SGI
4. Reinstall SGI if the problem persists